Building and installing the MP4 / M4A / AAC plugin for Mixxx 2.0 / 2.1 on Ubuntu

This is a pita. You’ve installed and set up Mixxx, but your .m4a files are not shown in the library. You need to compile Mixxx from source, but it is fast to do so. Here’s how. I tested this on Ubuntu 16.04.02 LTS 64bit and it will build Mixxx 2.0 / 2.1 under “/mixxx”. Ymmv for other Mixxx versions, but the wiki should get you started.
Note that it might be easier to just convert all the songs you use to OGG or MP3. This saves you a lot of work with every new Mixxx version.

UPDATE: I couldn’t get this to work for Mixxx 2.2. I had to compile ALL of Mixxx and install it using “sudo scons install”.

Install prequisites (might need super-user rights):

apt install g++ git scons libqt4-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite libportmidi-dev libopusfile-dev libshout-dev libtag1-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libusb-1.0-0-dev libfftw3-dev libmad0-dev portaudio19-dev libchromaprint-dev librubberband-dev libsqlite3-dev libid3tag0-dev libflac-dev libsndfile-dev libupower-glib-dev libjack-dev libjack0 portaudio19-dev libfaad-dev libmp4v2-dev

Mixxx 2.2 seems to need those additional prequisites:

pyqt5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qtscript5-dev qtscripttools5-dev qtscript5-dev liblilv-dev

Clone repository to ~/mixxx directory:

cd ~
git clone -b 1.12 https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx.git (for 2.0)
git clone -b 2.1 https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx.git (for 2.1)
git clone -b 2.2 https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx.git (for 2.2)

Go to directory and create install dir:

cd mixxx
mkdir install

Build ONLY the M4A / AAC support library:

scons prefix=../install -j 4 optimize=native faad=1 lin64_build/plugins/lin64_build/m4a/libsoundsourcem4a.so

Create soundsource plugin directory if it does not exist and copy plugin there (might need super-user rights):

mkdir /usr/lib/mixxx/plugins/soundsource/ 
cp lin64_build/plugins/lin64_build/m4a/libsoundsourcem4a.so /usr/lib/mixxx/plugins/soundsource/

Optional: Delete build directory:

rm -rf ~/mixxx 

Optional: Uninstall all “-dev” prequisites again, but keep libmp4v2 and libfaad (might need super-user rights):

apt remove scons libqt4-dev libportmidi-dev libopusfile-dev libshout-dev libtag1-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libusb-1.0-0-dev libfftw3-dev libmad0-dev portaudio19-dev libchromaprint-dev librubberband-dev libsqlite3-dev libid3tag0-dev libflac-dev libsndfile-dev libupower-glib-dev libjack-dev portaudio19-dev libfaad-dev libmp4v2-dev

If you have installed those (see above) and do not need them anymore:

apt remove pyqt5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qtscript5-dev qtscripttools5-dev qtscript5-dev

Now run Mixxx and enjoy your mp4 support.